POWERLESS

POWERLESS

Dylan Strome scored two goals and added an assists while Adin Hill stopped 31-of-33 San Diego shots to lead the Tucson Roadrunners to a 4-2 win over the Gulls at Valley View Casino Center.

Strome’s pair of goals, including the game-winning goal on the power play at 10:15 of the third period helped erase a two-goal deficit to score four unanswered goals.

The loss snapped San Diego’s four-game win streak and was the first loss of the calendar year for the Gulls, while the Gulls power play went an unforeseen 0-for-7 in the contest.

Gulls forward Joe Blandisi opened the scoring at 9:59 of the opening period when he tipped Marcus Pettersson’s point shot through Hill (8-8-1). San Diego would double their lead at 17:36 of the first period when Corey Tropp jammed a puck past Hill for his ninth goal of the season and fifth in his last five games.

The second period is where the tied turned on San Diego and Tucson, who played the previous night in Ontario, go their skates under them early. Only 57 seconds into the period is when Strome began his dominance with his first tally of the game, a power-play goal that beat Gulls goaltender Reto Berra when he used Gulls defenseman Jacob Larsson as a screen and snuck a wrist shot over the Swiss native’s glove.

Laurent Dauphin , who was reacquired from the Chicago Blackhawks organizations earlier in the week in a trade involving Anthony Duclair, score the tying goal only 100 seconds later to even the game at 2-2.

It would be Strome again on the power play in the third period, this time the game-winning goal from his strong side at the right circle. The Arizona Coyotes third overall selection of the 2015 NHL Draft picked the top corner near side to give the Roadrunners a 3-2 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

The Gulls had their chance with six minutes remaining in the game as Kalle Kossila skated to the top of the left circle and lifted a strong effort that hit the elbow of the crossbar and came right back out. Less than a minute later Andy Welinski’s point shot found its way through traffic but rang off the far post and back out.

Michael Bunting would score an empty-net goal with 56 seconds on the clock to seal the game.

San Diego and Tucson will face off two more times this upcoming week, with games on Monday, Jan. 15 (6:05 p.m. PT) and Wednesday, Jan. 17 (9:05 a.m. PT) at Tucson Arena. The Gulls return home next weekend for a back-to-back matchup vs. the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 19-20 (both 7 p.m.).